Pinch pleated curtain heading stiffeners

ABSTRACT

A curtain heading of pinch-pleated assemblies of butterfly configurations is stiffened by plastic hinged wing stiffeners adapted to be inserted into the open ends of the pinch-pleated assemblies to hold the shape of the pleats and removable therefrom when the curtain is to be washed or dry cleaned. These stiffeners being made of two wings to accommodate the two outside pleats or with a central wing to accommodate the partial inner pleat of the assembly. These same stiffeners when provided with adhesive can be used as a backing on which to form the pleats and heat pressed to adhere the curtain material to the stiffeners so that the stiffeners become a permanent part of the curtain.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Milton Kalder 2,996.1 l6 8/ 1961 Hudson 160/348 1065 Lorraine Drive. Franklin Square. 3,134,348 5/ I964 Kalder..... i60/348X N.Y. 10010 3.44L077 4/ i969 Romano l60/348 P 7398 Primary Examiner-David .l. Williamowsky 523 i Assistant Examiner-Philip C. Kannan Attorney-Polachek & Saulsbury [54] g ggtig CURTAIN ABSTRACT: A curtain heading of pinch-pleated assemblies 2 Claims. 2 Drawing as of butterfly configurations is stifl'ened by plastic hinged wing stiffeners adapted to be inserted into the open ends of the U-S. pinch.p|eated [o the shape f the pleats and l l l A47! removabletherefrom when the curtain is to be washed or dry 0 Search 348, le ed Th e tifleners being made of two wings to acgonp 349; 1 12/427; 223/28; 24/( inquired) modate the two outside pleats or with a central wing to accommodate the'partial inner pleat of the assembly. These same [56] Refenmes cued stiffeners when provided with adhesive can be used as a UNITED STATES PATENTS backing on which to form the pleats and heat pressed to ad- 2,621,728 12/1952 Anderson 160/348 here the curtain material to the stift'eners so that the stiffeners 2,646,] [6 7/1953 Freeman l60/348 become a pennanent part of the curtain.

PINCII PLEATED CURTAIN READING STIFFENERS This invention relates to pinch-pleated curtain headings and more particularly to means for stiffening the pinch pleats.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide stiffening means for pinch-pleated butterfly configurations for ready made draperies with a plastic stiffener which may be removed from the pleated sections to allow for washing and cleaning of the curtains or draperies and then replaced in the pleated configurations when the drapery is again to be hung over the window.

It is another object of the invention to provide a plastic stiffener for pinch-pleated butterfly drapery configurations having three wings engaging the three outer folds to support all three of the pinch pleats.

It is another object of the invention to provide a plastic stiffener device for pinch-pleated sections of curtains that the wings of the same are adapted to be heat sealed with the drapery material upon the forming of the pinch pleats and whereupon the need for the stitching in the ordinary forming of pinch pleat sections will be eliminated, the wings of the stiffener being hingeable upon one another to allow for the flat heat press assembly of the formed pleats upon the stiffener wings.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a plastic stiffener for drapery-pleated sections which can be provided by plastic extrusion with the hinge edges of the wings weakened to provide a hinge connection with one another.

For a better understanding of this invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. I is a front perspective view of the pinch-pleated butterfly configuration and of the stifiener removed therefrom preparatory to being reinserted into the outer pleats of the configuration.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view with one of the pleats broken away and with the stiffener inserted into the configuration, the usual stitching of maintaining the assemblage of the pleats being shown.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged transverse sectional view taken through the assembled pinch-pleated section and the stiffener, this view being taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

I FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the stifi'ener of FIG. 3 flattened and expanded with the weakened hinge connection between the wings.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a plastic stiffener with two wings and provided with adhesive or heat sensitive surfaces.

FIG. 5A is a perspective view of the plastic stiffener of FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of a pinch-pleated curtain assembly formed with the adhesive stiffener of FIGS. 5 and 5A.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a plastic stiffener having three wing portions hingeable with one another and adapted to support the central pleat as well as the outer pleat.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the stiffener of FIG. 7 assembled into a pinch-pleated drapery section.

FIG. 9 is a transverse sectional view taken on line 9-9 of the pinch-pleated configuration and stiffener of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a transverse sectional view of a triple wing stiffener, with adhesive surfaces to retain the pleats.

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary perspective view of the triple adhesive stiffener of FIG. 10.

Referring now particularly to FIGS. I to 4. a curtain heading 15 is provided with the usual pinch-pleated configuration 16 consisting of outer pleats I7 and 18 and an inner less extended pleat 19. These pleats being held together by vertical stitching 21 and transverse bottom stitching 22.

According to the present invention, there has been provided a plastic stiffener 24 having two wings 25 and 26 joined together by a weakened or less thick connection 27 allowing the relatively stifi wings 25 and 26' to be hinged upon one another. Upon folding the wings 25 and 26 upon one another and by the provision of a rounded lower blunt or tapered edge 28 the stiffener 24 can be readily thrust inwardly to top opening 29 of the pleat assembly 16 and thrust home so that its upper edge 30 lies flush with the top of opening 29.

This curtain heading can be formed in the usual manner with a buckram or paper-stiffening material and the entire heading of the buckram sheet and drapery material sheet folded together or as shown the drapery sheet may have but the one layer without the stiffener material but folded over to provide two thicknesses of the heading material.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, there is shown a stiffener insert 31 formed similar to the insert 24 but with a central wing 32 to which outer wings 25' and 26' are respectively hinged along their inner edges to the central wing 32 as indicated at 33. This central wing 32 is rounded as indicated at 34 and taken with rounded edges 35 and 36 of wings 25' and 26' permits easy insertion of the stiffener into the pinch-pleated assembly 16 as shown in FIG. 8 with the central wing 32 being aligned with the central pleat I9 and thereby maintaining the shape of this central pleat 19' as will the wings 25' and 26' maintain the shape as with the first form of the invention as of the pleats l7 and 18 respectively.

It should be apparent that with both of these described stiffeners that this stiffener can be readily removed from the pinch-pleated assembly 16 at times when the curtain needs to be washed or cleaned so that they will not be subjected to detergents or soaps that would tend to weaken them. When the drapery is to be again hung these stiffeners will be reinserted and their pinch-pleated sections given reinforcement and their initial configuration. With both of these forms of the invention the pinch-pleated sections have been previously formed by the stitchings 21 and 22 in the usual manner.

Referring now particularly to the form of the invention shown in FIGS. 5, 5A and 6, the stiffener becomes permanent part of the curtain or drapery, the same being made of plastic uneffected by detergent or soap or dry cleaning compositions and most important, an assemblage is afforded by the use of adhesive so that the pinch pleats will be formed upon the stiffener and joined with the stiffener as by pressure heating, whereby stitching to provide the pinch-pleated configurations is not needed and eliminated. A plastic stiffener similar to the stiffener shown in FIG. 1 is indicated generally at 38 with wings 39 and 40 and a weakened hinge connection 41 along their inner edges and the surfaces of these wings 39 are provided on their outer faces respectively with adhesive 39' and 40' and on their inner surfaces with one-half adhesive layers 39" and 40". The lower edges of the wings 39 and 40 are provided respectively with rounded and blunt edges 42 and 43.

Since the stitching has been eliminated the pinch-pleated assembly 16 will be formed directly upon the adhesive-coated stifi'ener 38, to assume the shape shown in FIG. 6. While the adhesive surfaces of the stiffener wings can be of tacky nature, it is preferable that the adhesive be activated only by the application of heat so that when effecting the assembly of the pinch pleats, heat will be applied along with the pleats being pressed so as to activate the adhesive and fix the pleats securely to the wing portion of the stiffener. The adhesive should also be uneffected by detergents and dry cleaning chemicals. In this manner a permanent pinch-pleated assembly is formed with the stiffener and done without stitching operation.

Referring now particularly to FIGS. 10 and 11, it will be noted that the triple-winged stiffener of FIG. 7 has been provided with adhesive so that as well the outer pleats I7 and I8 are formed by adhering the drapery material to the outer wings by adhesive control will be kept of the central pleat 19. This form of the invention of a stiffener is indicated generally at 45 as outer wings 46 and 47 provided with outer adhesive layers 46' and 47' respectively and a central wing 48 provided on opposite sides with one-half adhesive layers 48 and 48". The inner surfaces of the outer wings 46 and 47 are not provided with adhesive so as to allow adhered pleats with the wing portions to be opened for display in a butterfly shape configuration as with the unadhesive triple-wing stiffener 31.

Here again stitching has been eliminated and the assembly of the pleats for the drapery material are gathered onto the wings of the stiffener 45 and heat pressed to cause the drapery materialto be adhered to the stiffener wings. The respective wings with the pleats adhered to them can be hinged upon one another by the weakened hinge connections of the outer wing 46 and 47 with the central wing 48.

It should now be apparent that not only has a stiffener been provided for the ordinary pinch pleat assembly formed by stitching of the folded pleats together but stiffencrs have been provided with adhesive so that the stiffeners serve for the forming of the pleats by heat pressing to join the material with the wings of the stifiener and thereby to eliminate the need for stitching and making of preformed pinch-pleated assemblies.

I claim:

1. A curtain heading, comprising a flat body, folds at one portion thereof defining butterfly pleating, said folds defining two outer pleats and one inner pleat between the outer pleats,

all of said pleats being angularly disposed to each other and to said flat body, each of said pleats being generally rectangular in form with lower portions close together and with upper portions spread further apart to define said butterfly pleating, inner edges of the outer pleats being secured to each other by stitching, each of said pleats having double walls integrally joined at one of the folds; and a stiffener member having three flat imperforate wings integrallyjoined to each other at a com-v 

1. A curtain heading, comprising a flat body, folds at one portion thereof defining butterfly pleating, said folds defining two outer pleats and one inner pleat between the outer pleats, all of said pleats being angularly disposed to each other and to said flat body, each of said pleats being generally rectangular in form with lower portions close together and with upper portions spread further apart to define said butterfly pleating, inner edges of the outer pleats being secured to each other by stitching, each of said pleats having double walls integrally joined at one of the folds; and a stiffener member having three flat imperforate wings integrally joined to each other at a common inner edge and radiating forwardly therefrom, each of said wings fitting snugly between the double walls of one of the pleats and juxtaposed to said walls to hold the same flat, so that the stiffener member shapes and holds said one portion of said body in said butterfly pleating.
 2. A curtain heading as defined in claim 1, further comprising heat-setting adhesive layers on sides of the wings securing walls of the pleats to the wings to maintain said pleats permanently in the butterfly-pleating array. 